Registered: Sep 2002
Location: San Diego, CA
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ICE Exam ?: Best source for locating public method?

I was reviewing the following question below, and chose (C) as the correct answer noting that class diagrams define visibility and the question points to "public" method.

However, the answer is (b) according to the posted answer sheet. Interaction diagrams don't denote visibility they just presume visibility. Can anyone ellaborate on this one?

Thanks...

If a use case had a requirement "Calculate account balance," which OOAD artifact would be the BEST source for determining the name of the public method used to invoke the operation?

a) Use case

b) Interaction diagram

c) Class diagram

d) Activity diagram

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Lou

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Registered: May 2002
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Hi,

You cannot send a message to an object unless you have visibility to that method. The interaction diagram is more intuitive in the sense that you show the arrow indicating the message.

In the class diagram the public method can be shown with a + sign before the name of the method, when you read the diagram it has to be interpreted.

So I would pick interaction diagram over the class diagram.

Bala

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My doubt is as in object important design, i.e. OOPS-class diagram comes before making interaction diagram.

So in class diagram we are defining public methods.Then how 'interaction' diagram come in between.
Kindly give a reply

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I agree with you Bali that you certainly need visibility between objects to have a message between objects in an interaction diagram, but visibility is implicitly defined there (i.e., is public but could also be protected or friend). It's in the class diagram where visibility is explicitly defined.

For instance, suppose the question was worded with "protected" vs. "public" method. Would you still say interaction diagram?

Just playing devils advocate, but to conclude, I feel the the question can be perceived as a little ambiguous. I can imagine it must be a fine art to know when to read into the question more or not to pass this exam.

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Lou

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The question is strange because operations are always associated with a class or object. In real development, you don't go hunting for an operation over the set of classes in an application. You look at the classes that best represent the abstraction, i.e. Account, and then look for methods that calculate the balance.

However, the question takes a more purist approach and assumes that the interaction diagrams will be easily associated with the appropriate use case (a big assumption) and assumes that the user will not necessarily find the right abstraction for the concept and will therefore have to follow the interaction diagram flow to find the message that approximates the calculate account balance operation.

Certainly it can be done this way. The real question is which way would you most likely pick?

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quote:

---

Originally posted by joe abraham
My doubt is as in object important design, i.e. OOPS-class diagram comes before making interaction diagram.

So in class diagram we are defining public methods.Then how 'interaction' diagram come in between.
Kindly give a reply

---

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This is incorrect that there may be only public operations in interaction diagrams.

The message may be sent even to private method by the same object on itself. It is called self-call (Fowler) and is also shown in Larman or private operation may be invoked/exposed through a delegation.

In Java the message may be sent to private method not only by the same object but by another object of the same class.

Certainly neither of private, internal, protected, friend, public visibility does prohibit/determine exposure of interaction between objects. As well as visibility is not shown or can be determined from interaction diagrams.

I also have seen a question-answer in this site defining that Interaction Model shows only public operations. Where is it from? that object interactions exposure is restricted by ONLY public operations?

Last edited by Guenavan on 01-03-2004 at 03:27 PM

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